


a dying man’s certainty

by nonbinarywithaknife (littleboxes)



Series: dimension 20 [11]
Category: Dimension 20 (Web Series)
Genre: Blood and Gore, Campaign: A Crown of Candy, Canonical Character Death, Fuck the Bulbian Church, Gen, Graphic Description of Corpses, Not Canon Compliant, On the Run, bad things happen to the bodies of heretics
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-15
Updated: 2020-05-15
Packaged: 2021-03-02 16:54:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,018
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24190156
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/littleboxes/pseuds/nonbinarywithaknife
Summary: Another day passes as Cal lurks in the alleys of Comida, and it’s getting harder to hide. Some guards get a little too curious and if, after luring them into the shadows, he drags his rapier a little more violently across their imperial throats, no one is there to see it.
Series: dimension 20 [11]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1706107
Comments: 22
Kudos: 67





	a dying man’s certainty

Calroy knows that when Amethar says he’ll die before Liam does, he means it, so after he sees them off, he tells the Swirlys to start preparing for the journey back to Candia. Better that they’re prepared for a quick exit than to be caught flat footed. Donetta doesn’t need him to tell her what’s likely to happen, and far sooner than his restlessness likes, there is nothing more he can do except wait for the king to return. 

As evening begins to fall, Cal lounges and wishes he’d gone with them for the trial. At least if things went wrong, he would be there with them. And there are so _many_ ways for things to go wrong, so many questions they don’t have the answers to. 

It’s an hour past the setting of the Bulb when he hears footsteps approach his quarters. He jumps up to welcome them in, but there’s a knock. _Long-short-short-short_. His and Donetta’s signal to run. He grabs his rapiers and runs for the window. He can hear his wife making excuses and just as he drops from the sill, there’s the sound of a door being slammed open. 

Calroy sprints through the darkened alleys of Comida with the shouting of imperial soldiers ringing in his ears.

As he runs his thoughts race. He knows Donetta will be fine, she’s always excelled in diplomacy. He can cheerfully say that she makes him look like, well, Amethar, in comparison, and he’s no slouch in the field of court politics. 

By the sound of it, the soldiers are attempting to give chase, and Cal knows they’ll expect him to try and leave the city. He probably could, if their forces are split between him and the king’s group, but it’s possible they’ve prepared people at the border of the city already. (And- Cal doesn’t know what’s happened to Amethar and the girls yet. If they still live. They might have need of him.)

The question is, what’s turned the Concord against Candia? Liam’s magic, Ruby’s magic, _Lapin_ ’s magic? Did they try to execute Liam? The lack of answers makes him itch, and Cal runs for the Cathedral, hoping he isn’t too late.

(He gets close, and there is a cloud of imperial soldiers around the church. He catches sight of a smashed-through stone window, before he’s forced to flee.)

He spends the rest of the day hiding and gathering information. The word is spreading slowly, but he catches bits from gossiping nobles. Candia is somehow no longer a member of the Concord. _Joren Jawbreaker_ is king, somehow, and the church is attempting to arrest every Candian in the city. 

They say "we are combing the city for the Candian heretics" and he hears, _the rest of them are alive._ He hears, _the king still lives_.

Another day passes as Cal lurks in the alleys of Comida, and it’s getting harder to hide. Some guards get a little too curious and if, after luring them into the shadows, he drags his rapier a little more violently across their imperial throats, no one is there to see it.

It's the tail end of the second day of adrenaline-fueled hiding, and the church announces they have the body of an apostate. That it will be displayed in the square for all to see how the Bulb punishes heretics, _witches_. Cal's blood freezes as he pictures ruby with an arrow in her throat, Liam being led away in chains.

He doesn't want to go, doesn't want to see his failure laid so plainly out. But the right hand of the king of Candia- the _rightful_ king- has done many things that he would rather not, so he pulls his hooded cloak tighter and heads to the square.

The crowd is thick, and the excited murmuring is mixed with the faintest whispers of discontent.

Cal catches the whispers as they drift by, and starts to put together the pieces.

_-brother is a imperial soldier-_

_-outnumbered, locked in-_

_-spouted heresy-_

_-cast witchcraft blatantly-_

_-smashed stone-_

_-leapt from a window-_

_-spat in their faces-_

_-said the bulb cares for none-_

None of the whispers prepare Cal for the body. 

The body of the Chancellor has been strung up on the dais, noose around his neck. But it’s clear that it wasn’t hanging that killed him.

Dried blood has left tracks down his face- from his eyes, his nose, his mouth. A chunk has been ripped from one of his ears. His bloodied and torn robes can’t hide the massive gash across his chest. Cal has to look away and swallow his nausea. 

It's grotesque to a degree Calroy hadn’t thought the church was willing to go to, and he reluctantly admires the Pontifex's boldness. If there was ever any chance that they would find allies in the other members of the Concord, it’s been thoroughly crushed now. 

Cal turns away, not willing to disrespect Lapin’s body any further with his presence, but as he leaves, he takes note of the crowd’s mood.

 _The third magic worker of the church to be disavowed_ , they whisper.

 _How many heretics are snakes in the church's grass_ , they wonder, _how did the Bulb not see them? Not burn them out of its light?_

_Perhaps the Bulb didn’t see?_

_Perhaps the Bulb did, and simply didn't care?_

Calroy has never been much of a religious man, but he glances up in the sky. It's hard to argue with a dying man’s certainty, if only because he almost always has the last word, and he wonders what Lapin saw, bleeding out on the floor of a church.

He doesn’t have any more time to wonder, however, because one of the guards has started to eye him, and Calroy knows it’s time to retreat into the depths of Comida’s alleyways once again. He’s not sure how much longer he can stay in Comida, now. He has no way of knowing if Lapin was the only one to be killed, or where the others have gone.

He can only hope he’ll make it out of this in one piece.

**Author's Note:**

> this is way too optimistic to ever be canon but please i just want cal to be okay and get out. also rip lapin, we only knew you for six snarky, snarky episodes but what a way to go


End file.
